ZETH LUNDY

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Idlewild/Rounder (2011) I don't formally speak for all TMBG fans, but I think I speak for most TMBG fans when I say that every post-John Henry studio release has been greeted with crossed fingers and a mantra: "Pre-John Henry caliber."

Lightning Rod (2011) Jason Isbell's stint as the Drive-By Truckers' third axman/singer-songwriter was brief but revelatory: dude was a veritable outta-nowhere sensation who sounded as if he'd been road-tripping in bands of that caliber for decades.

ATO (2011) I've argued that Drive-By Truckers — the definitive post-Southern-rock Southern-rock band — haven't been the same since parting ways with Jason Isbell, and their previous two releases serve as spotty Exhibits A and B.

OVNI/Turnstile (2011) Gruff Rhys has gone into extracurricular overdrive. In the past five years, he's released more solo albums and side projects than he has discs with his long-time band Super Furry Animals.

Legacy/American (2011) The reedy voices of Mark Olson and Gary Louris are why the Jayhawks stood out from the '90s alt-country crowd - two inextricably linked stalks of lonesome beauty, they remain impossible to discern from each other, impossible to peel apart.

Ashmont (2010) In the four years since the previous Pernice Brothers album, Joe Pernice has published a terrific debut novel ( It Feels So Good When I Stop ), released an accompanying soundtrack, and had his name catapulted into Twitter infamy by his acerbic foil (and manager), Joyce Linehan.

Nonesuch (2010) Once just another guitar/drums garage-blues duo, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have moved beyond the garage and the blues and are now making quintessentially American music that’s knee-deep in funky R&B.

Lifted & Gifted (2010) The winking disconnect between Ketman’s promotional art (swingin’ young people from a half-century ago enjoying the pleasures of their hi-fi system; Twiggy types with black bars across their eyes) and Ketman’s music (lean, pugilistic rock with 1980s American punk in its rear-view mirror) is now a little less disconnect-y.

Matador (2010) Once a group of Canadian unknowns masquerading as a supergroup, the New Pornographers are no longer entirely Canadian or unknown, and neither are they the same cavalier bunch who redefined left-field power pop for the Naughts.

Virgin (2010) Although this is their first album without an indie-chic producer, the fake band with fake cartoon characters known as Gorillaz stay the course as a very real post-Blur conduit for Damon Albarn's quasi-apocalyptic, '80s-daydreaming, neon-pop habit.